Ramesh Srinivasan, Associate Professor at UCLA in Design and Media/Information Studies, studies and participates in projects focused on how new media technologies impact political revolutions, economic development and poverty reduction, and the future of cultural heritage. He has worked with bloggers, pragmatically studying their strengths and limitations, who were involved in recent revolutions in Egypt and Kyrgyzstan, as discussed in a recent NPR interview. He has also collaborated with non-literate tribal populations in India to study how literacy emerges through uses of technology, and traditional Native American communities to study how non-Western understandings of the world can introduce new ways of looking at the future of the internet. His work has impacted contemporary understandings of media studies, anthropology and sociology, design, and economic and political development studies.

Curriculum Vitae

Greg Distelhorst is a Ph.D. candidate in the MIT Department of Political Science and a predoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. His dissertation addresses public accountability under authoritarian rule, focusing on official responsiveness and citizen activism in contemporary China. This work shows how citizens can marshal negative media coverage to discipline unelected officials, or "publicity-driven accountability." These findings result from two years of fieldwork in mainland China, including a survey experiment on tax and regulatory officials. A forthcoming second study measures the effects of citizen ethnic identity on government responsiveness in a national field experiment. His dissertation research has been funded by the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Boren Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation. A second area of research is labor governance under globalization, where he has examined private initiatives to improve working conditions in the global garment, toy, and electronics supply chains.

Mao Xie is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow with the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012–13. Xie has over 20 years of work experience in China's petroleum industry. He participated in the restructuring of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) in the late 1990s, and in the listing of PetroChina (the listed arm of CNPC) in international stock markets in 2000. He was also involved in the formulation and implementation of CNPC/PetroChina’s oil products marketing strategy, and in the designing of the oil products marketing and retailing management system. Xie has participated in the consolidation and specialized management of PetroChina’s city gas business since 2008, and played a part in the formation of a complete industrial chain of PetroChina’s gas business. He also contributed to the designing and implementation of PetroChina’s city gas organizational structure.  Xie received his bachelor's degree in petroleum storage and transportation from Harbin University of Commerce and his MBA from Zhejiang University.

Bin Wang is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13. 

 From 1993 to 98, Wang worked for the Ministry of Electronic Industry of China (MEI).  At MEI, he was in charge of managing the Electronic Industry Development Fund, which invested in companies engaged in information technology in China.  He also participated in the research and formulation of industrial policy.  In 1999, Wang set up a high-tech company and served as its CEO.  The company specialized in developing embedded software and finally became the only provider of mobile payment solutions for China UnionPay.  This company was acquired in 2010 as a price of $47.5 million USD and generated over 100x returns for the initial investors.  Wang joined Infotech Ventures, a leading venture investment company in China, as a venture partner in 2010.  His current responsibilities include identifying potential investment projects in the IT industry and doing research in venture investment and entrepreneurship.  Wang received his bachelor's degree in management engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology and his master's degree in public administration from Sichuan University. 

Toshihiko Takeda is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13.  He was born in Shizuoka prefecture, the "home of Mt. Fuji," and has worked for the Shizuoka Prefectural Government for over 10 years.  His numerous roles have included city planning, community development, and multicultural affairs, and he has also lent his expertise to the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations in Tokyo and London.  During his fellowship at Shorenstein APARC, his research will focus on American immigration policy since World War II.  Takeda earned his bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Taisho University, Japan.

Masashi Suzuki is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012–13.  Suzuki has over 11 years of experience in the information technology arena at Sumitomo Corporation, one of the major trading and investment conglomerates in Japan, and its subsidiaries.  His experience in the IT industry includes system development, project management, sales, business development and strategy planning. While at Stanford, Suzuki is researching the difference in the profitability and structure of IT businesses between the United States and Japan.  Suzuki is interested in applying his knowledge gained here to his work and overall helping to revive the economy in Japan.  Suzuki graduated from Chuo University with a degree in business administration.

Kenta Sakurai is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13.  He has been working since 2003 for the Japan Patent Office, one of the external agencies of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, as a patent examiner handling applications for physical sensors and sensor networks.  From 2009 to 2011, he was also in charge of the policy planning of electronic commerce at METI.  Sakurai received his master of science degree in physics from Tohoku University in 2001.

Kazuaki Osumi is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13.  Osumi has held positions at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for about 10 years, where he has led policy making projects.  He has worked in the Electricity and Gas Industry Department; Information and Communication Electronics Division; Industrial Finance Division; and the Nara Prefectural Government (temporary transfer).  His latest position at METI was as deputy director for the Policy Evaluation and Public Relations Division.  He received a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master of science from the University of Tokyo.

Saiko Nakagawa is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2012-13.  Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, she served as deputy director for market analysis at the Government of Japan's Financial Services Agency, performing financial markets monitoring and economic analysis. Nakagawa’s previous international experience includes contributing to the recent discussion on the credit default swap market at the International Organization of Securities Commissions.

Nakagawa received a bachelor's degree in economics from Keio University in 2000, and a master’s of pacific international affairs (international economics major) from the University of California, San Diego, in 2004.